LTC1799 PRECISION OSCILLATOR

The LTC1799 is a precision oscillator chip that has many applications, but the main one we're interested in here is its ability to provide a stable and controllable clock source that can be used to add pitching controls to any number of toys, synthesisers, samplers and other noise producing machines.With the addition of a couple of cheap components you can use these to build a timing oscillator capable of changing the pitch and/or running speed of anything from a gameboy to an Akai sampler, via most drum machines and a lot of keyboards on the way.

The actual LTC1799 chip itself is made by Linear Technology and is only supplied in a surface mount package, meaning its physically about as large as a grain of rice (see below) and virtually impossible to work on without a magnifying glass, a purpose made circuitboard and some seriously steady hands when it comes to soldering. Consequently its very difficult to actually incorporate it into a circuit bent or modified design without adapting the surface mount chip to some form that can be easily used in standard chip sockets, thru hole circuitboards and stripboard. Not without extensive swearing and ruined eyesight anyway!

As a result we are now selling two versions of the LTC1799 in formats that can be easily used in circuit bent designs. The first consists of the LTC1799 chip mounted on a DIP6 adaper, so it can be mounted in a standard IC socket, or used in a stripboard circuit. With this version you will have to supply a couple of extra components, but we do have tutorial explaining how to build the circuit yourself on stripboard HERE. This is the cheaper version, but it does take up more space and it will take a little more experimentation to find the correct component values.

The second option consists a complete LTC1799 oscillator module mounted on a tiny PCB measuring 11.5mm x 11.5mm. The PCB comes with all the extra components you need already onboard, including a tiny trimmer potentiometer to set the highest frequency the oscillator will run. All you need to do with this version is to simply wire in a potentiometer and power supply.

Click on the images below for more details of each version.

LTC1799 ON DIP6 ADAPTER: £3.50

LTC1799 PCB MODULE: £5.50

We also have a general INSTALLATION GUIDE that covers the basics of installing a LTC1799 on many machines.